4.  The applicant was born in 1970 and lives in Novoaltaysk in the Altay Region. He is a practising lawyer.
5.  The applicant is the legal owner of State commodity bonds Harvest-90 (чеки «Урожай-90») having a total nominal value of 64,000 Russian roubles (“RUR”). These bonds were a special money substitute issued by the USSR Government in 1990 in order to finance the purchase of the harvest for further distribution among the population. In additional to a certain nominal value, the bonds gave their bearers an opportunity to purchase goods that had then been in short supply.
6.  In 2001 the applicant brought a civil action against the Russian Government and Ministry of Finance, seeking to recover the value of his bonds. He argued that in 1991, the bearer of bonds worth 16,000 Russian roubles could exchange them for a Russian-made Vaz passenger car.
7.  On 6 September 2001 the Novoaltaysk Town Court of the Altay Region granted the applicant's claim and awarded him RUR 455,080 (approximately 17,400 euros).
8.  On 9 January 2002 the Altay Regional Court upheld the judgment on appeal. It held as follows:
“The [first-instance] court correctly found that, once the State has recognised the obligations [arising from the commodity bonds], they should be discharged in good faith, pursuant to Article 309 of the Civil Code. The court correctly noted that the failure to adopt a federal law governing the procedure for redemption of the State's obligations did not prevent the plaintiff from seeking judicial protection of his legitimate interests. By virtue of Article 310 of the Civil Code, unilateral repudiation of an obligation or unilateral modification of its terms are not permissible, unless the law provides otherwise. At present there is no federal law on unilateral modification of the terms of the obligation. Accordingly, the court correctly applies the norms of the Civil Code.
Pursuant to Article 314 of the Civil Code, if an obligation is to be discharged on a specific day or within a specific period of time, it may be discharged at any moment within that period. The plaintiff's bonds provided for his right to receive four Vaz cars by 1 October 1991. However, this obligation has not been discharged to date. In this connection the court correctly concluded that the plaintiff has the right to pecuniary compensation equivalent to the value of four Vaz cars at the day of the judgment...”
9.  On 22 June 2002 the applicant submitted a writ of execution and his bank details to the Ministry of Finance for enforcement.
10.  By letter of 8 October 2002, a deputy Minister of Finance acknowledged receipt of the documents and informed him that the courts had erred in granting his claim and that the Altay Regional Treasury would submit an application for institution of supervisory-review proceedings against the judgments. It appears that that application was rejected by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on an unspecified date.
11.  On 17 August 2005 the Ministry of Finance applied for a stay of execution of the judgment on the ground that the 2005 Federal Budget Act had suspended payments under the Harvest-90 bonds until 31 December 2005.
12.  On 6 September 2005 the Novoaltaysk Town Court refused the Ministry's application. It pointed out that judicial decisions were binding on all State authorities and that the suspension of payments from the federal budget was not a ground for staying enforcement of an enforceable judgment. On 19 October 2005 the Altay Regional Court upheld that decision on appeal.
13.  The judgment of 6 September 2001, as upheld on appeal on 9 January 2002, has not yet been enforced.